With college basketball’s season reaching its peak, it’s only fitting that we talk some trash. Or rubbish. In The Rubbish Diet, British blogger “Almost Mrs. Average” completed her eight-week challenge to reduce what she sends to the landfill.
After composting and giving some items to her three-year-old for art projects, the family produced one item of trash during the last week: a band aid. (sorry, a bandage)
And I thought I was doing pretty well because I only put out my giant 95-gallon bin once a month! I’m doing pretty well minimizing food waste, but nobody’s perfect–I just tossed some moldy yogurt the other day. In terms of overall trash minimization, though, I (and most folks) have plenty of room for improvement.
One useful idea comes from Toronto household food waste collection. They found that food composting increased dramatically when trash pickups went from every week to every other week.
The same strategy could also minimize regular trash output. If people had an incentive to make less garbage, more folks would reuse, recycle and, most importantly, reduce their rubbish.
Alternately, don’t give households such huge bins!